Blog — September 26, 2016

Blog — September 19, 2016

Blog — September 05, 2016

How to Make Sure You Follow Through on Your Goals: 2016 Edition

By Pat Flynn on January 4, 2016

Welcome to 2016! Can you believe it’s here already? I can’t—but here we are. As we finish up our New Year’s celebrations and get ready to get moving again in our businesses, it’s time to think about not just what our goals are for the year, but how we’re going to stick with them.

Goals are great, of course. They’re like an address we punch into our navigation system that tells us which direction to go.

Keeping up with our goals, however, becomes the real challenge. In this post, I’ll be sharing three quick ways that you can stack on top of each other to give yourself the best chance of following through with your goals.

This post is short and to the point on purpose, because if you’re anything like me at the beginning of the year, you’re chomping at the bit to get started.

Let’s begin…

#1—Take One Bite at a Time

Have you ever heard the expression, “The only way to eat an elephant is to take one bite at a time”?

I don’t condone eating elephants, of course, but when it comes to the metaphorical elephant that is our goals, the only way to eat them is really one bite at a time.

Take that goal, chop it up into little bite-sized achievable pieces, and then start with the first one, and leave the rest for later.

With number goals, like earnings, traffic, and subscribers, this is fairly easy to calculate.

For example, this year my plan is to add an additional 100,000 people to my email list. This means that every month I should be adding 8,333 new subscribers. Broken down even further, that’s 1,923 per week, or about 274 per day.

Because I keep a close eye on where my subscribers are coming from and conversion rates throughout my site, I can make improvements both in terms of getting more traffic to the site and conversation rates into my opt-in form to achieve this goal.

The trick is when your goal isn’t necessarily numbers based, and for this type of goal I’d love to share a page out of The One Thing by Gary Kellar and Jay Papasan, titled Goal Setting to the Now.

I love this exercise because it not only focuses on the goal that you have, but what ONE Thing you can do today to help move the needle.

In this exercise, you’re working backwards from the big goal, creating smaller time-based goals along the way by keeping in mind a single action that you can take to meet that goal. By far, this simple exercise has had the most dramatic effect on my productivity, and I highly recommend that you think this through with the goals you have in mind not just for 2016, but beyond.

#2—Create Goal Supporting Habits

Last year, when I tackled writing Will It Fly? (which comes out in less than a month!), it was a huge struggle for me at first because I tried to write in any gap I could find in my schedule during the day. I thought I was hustling and doing the right thing because every extra piece of time I had I would sit down in front of my computer to write.

Well, I didn’t have much to show for it.

It wasn’t until I made writing routine and habitual, at the same time every single day, that the words started to flow out of me and into this book.

Habits are extremely important because when you get in habit-mode, you’re not even consciously making decisions to do things anymore, you just do them. Habits, of course, can work against you too, but when you decide to build habits that support you and your goals, you’re setting yourself up for major success.

Creating (or removing) habits is a huge topic, of course, one that may lend itself to a few podcast episodes in the near future, however if there’s one resource I can give you to help you establish these goal-supporting habits, it’s James Clear from JamesClear.com. Check him out—he never disappoints. He has what I consider to be the best content online related to habit forming.

In addition to business-related habits, I have many personal habits I plan to incorporate into my life here in 2016, primarily related to meditation and gratitude.

What’s one new habit that you could incorporate in your life that would support you and your goals this year?

#3—Find People to Hold You Accountable

Accountability is the top strategy that I’ve used throughout the years to help me stay on track and knock out my goals.

Accountability comes in many forms, but primarily I’ve benefited from connecting with others who I share my goals with, who know what I’m looking to achieve, and why. These people check in with me along the way, and will be there to help guide me back on track if I ever get off of it.

Sometimes, all you need is one other person to help you and it can make all the difference in the world. It’s like that gym partner who keeps you motivated on those days you just don’t want to get out of bed. You don’t want to let them down, but you also want to show up and motivate them too.

The people that have helped me the most are those in my mastermind groups, and I also have more casual and less frequent skype calls with others I’m close with, too. Whenever I’m down or just not feeling the energy, these people always lift my spirits up and get me back to where I need to be.

Find and define one person who will become your accountability partner this year for each of the major goals that you have. Set regular check-ins with each other during the year, and knowing there’s someone on the other end following along will be huge in motivating you to keep going, because when the “honeymoon period” ends after January is over, it becomes a real struggle.

To Recap, Here’s What You Need to Do if You Haven’t Already:

Take your big goals for the year and chop ‘em up into bite-sized chunks. Then, focus on that first one thing.

Decide on incorporating a habit into your life that is going to help you support your goals.

Find at least one accountability partner who is going to help you follow through. Set regular dates to meet and check in with each other.

Boom! Now you’ve got some weaponry to help you smash your goals for the year. Now go forth and conquer!

If you have a moment, share one goal you’re looking to achieve this year with the rest of the community in the comment section below!

I never see the project i steps. I always look at the big goal at the end, become horrified at all the impossible work it will entail and retreat back under my sheets in bed. I know not to eat the elephant (and like you I would never eat an elephant) all at once, yet constantly fail to plan out the small steps. Thanks for the advice. I hope this time to be able to follow it.

I have always tried to break my goals into smaller pieces to make them easier to digest. (If someone asks you to build a castle you’ll feel it’s somewhat daunting, but if you lay one brick at a time, it becomes so much easier.)

My goals for this year are to finally start making enough money online so I can become financially independent thanks to my online businesses.

I also knew I needed to increase my productivity levels and create more content for my websites (I needed to have better writing habits) so I created the “500-Word A Day (Times 6) Writing Challenge” here: http://www.buzznitrous.com/30-day-writing-challenge/ so that people can see if I’m sticking to the challenge.

Let’s see if this can help reach my goals for 2016.
Keeping a positive attitude plays a big role in the process.

Glad you asked! I’m happy to announce that I have reached my most important goals for 2016: a) I finally became financially independent thanks to my online earnings; b) I have built a niche website from scratch and got it to earn more than $200 a month.

As for my writing challenge, unfortunately, I failed in achieving that objective but for a good reason. I’ve enrolled in two internships (on how to build authority websites) in the beginning of 2016 and was later invited to work with the team behind the internships helping other interns. Currently I’m still working with them on the company’s websites.

In paralel, I’m trying to come up with systems and processes of my own to streamline content production and link building.

As Pat Flynn has also realized there comes a time when you need to stop doing everything by yourself (i.e. create systems, hire virtual assistants, build your team).

I’ve talked with lots of people using Strides that love breaking their projects down with project trackers and setting SMART Goals like your example of adding 100,000 new email subscribers this year with the Target tracker to always make sure they’re on pace to complete the project or reach the goal on time.

The key is to use a system that works for you and keeps you motivated through the tough times so you can keep moving forward toward your goals.

Rocky Kev

Pat – this is fantastic! #1 – take it one bite at a time, is fantastic. When I was chatting with Chris Ducker a while back, it was one of his suggestions too!

He went,
“So you want to make x dollars?
How much is that every month?
Now, much of that per week?
How much per day?”

My goal this year is to invest 10% of my time and income back into myself. Something I read about in Brian Tracey’s – No More Excuses. The one thing I can do is read 52 books this year – one per week. This is my one thing because it can prepare my mind each morning with knowledge. Arming myself with decades of knowledge and research can help me make the right decisions to make that One Thing Someday happen. Interesting I see the theme of The One Thing in a lot of peoples lives right now. Seems to be resonating with a lot of people. I have been listening to it on Audible for the last few days while I run.
– Kirby

My goal this year is to get started with my goal from last year. Lol. But seriously, this article just gave me the confidence I need and made me believe I can do it. I will put up my own blog and do all those things that will provide me passive income and then eventually share the knowledge to everyone just like what Pat is doing. I will be more assertive with my goals and be more disciplined than I ever was before. Cheers to 2016!

Many thanks Pat. The “reverse engineering” example you gave for goal setting and the associated required actions was very clearly presented. I also really appreciated the concept of incorporating a habit into our lives that will help us to achieve our goals – this is a simple yet very clever gem of an idea.
Thanks again – by the way I’m following all your podcasting training and hope to emulate even 5% of your success with that platform.
Best wishes to you for a successful 2016 from a remote Thai village entrepreneur
Peter

Pat, this speaks directly to an Ask Pat I left for you! It’s easy for me to break down the financial goals (per year -> per month -> per week -> per day). But the activities – if I break ALL of them down into daily pieces, that’s about 1/2 hour or less per piece of stuff. And for some projects, they take a chunk of time (e.g., creating an online course or prepping and doing a webinar), but not every week. I guess maybe I need a giant 12-month whiteboard calendar to map out every single day of the year, since not every day will be the same. Hmmm?

Jan

Hi Cathy – check out the book Personal Kanban to create a flow system for your tasks and projects. Jan

Pat I love your whole thing you have going on here, I’ve listened to a few of your pod casts and have checked over your blog a few times, will be a lot more now. At the start of 2016 I’ve took my first big step. And went totally out of my comfort zone as I’ve never been a writer. And I know have my own blog! Its located at http://blog.dannyleethompson.com It’s the same niche here. It’s all about passive income. Not going to lie i quite enjoy writing! If you see this can you do me a huge favour and check out my blog and give me a message. It would be a honor to speak with you mate. Thanks, Danny Thompson from the UK.

Based on listening to Tim Ferris’ recent podcast episode with Digg founder, Kevin Rouse, I recommend using the free Way of Life app to input and track habits that will support your most important goals.

Breaking up our goals into small tasks is the best thing to do. Most people in a hurry to complete tasks end up doing much more damage than gain. I hope I will stick to this little bit of wisdom for as long as I can. Take smaller bites.

Jay Sohani

Creating gols and trying to follow them some times fail but once we form the habits, working for our goals becomes our day to day activity and simplest form of our life..

Jeremy

I love this!

Thanks so much Pat. Because of your inspiration I’ve launched my own website that teaches people how to flip cars at 3HourFlip.com! I’ve followed all of your advice and now because of you I’m rocking and rolling with an online business. Thanks so much Pat!

Rick

Really great post Pat and good points made. Thanks!! Just posted a link to this for our members at Global Entrepreneurs Team at http://www.GrowWithGET.com. Cheers!

Adam

This seems pretty powerful! I have 2 goals this year:
1. Financial: Save up enough money into my emergency fund so I can afford living without a job for at least 3 (ideally 6) months.
2. Physical goal to become a clean eater with a whole food diet and no physical or mental addictions (eg coffee or sugar)
I have also broken down these big goals to smaller ones, feeling more achievable, time based goals to help me keep on track properly.
Let’s do this and find our better selves!

This information have been so good to me and others i see in your blog, I launch my website (http://lreview.net/) a year ago and now i getting good traffic and good profit i know now I really need some to help me accountable… thanks for the information